A few months ago, I wrote a blog post about the gothic novel "Bluebeard's Castle" by Anna Biller. While the writing was solid, I found the characters to be insufferable. It's an excellent character study on what causes women to fall for and stay with bad men. However, some of those bad choices the main character made could have easily been prevented with a quick Google search.
I am not victim blaming. I am saying she had the technology to fact check her handsome creep and chose not to.
But that's all in the past. I've moved on to other books within the genre - books like "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier.
"Rebecca" is one of those classic books (and movies) that everyone has (likely) heard of. It's most famous for having a protagonist without a name, a lot of twists and turns, and some queer subtext. Alfred Hitchcock directed the 1940 movie starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine. There's also a Netflix adaptation that I am ignoring.
"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again."
It's a haunting opening line to be sure. Our nameless narrator meets the much older Maximilian "Maxim" de Winter while on holiday with her employer, Mrs. Van Hopper, in Monte Carlo. They have a whirlwind romance (kind of sort of) after Mrs. Van Hopper is taken ill. Then decide to get married when Mrs. Van Hopper gets better and wants to return to America. Mrs. Van Hopper warns the narrator about marrying the mysterious de Winter, but is so unpleasant about it that I don't blame the narrator for running off.
The honeymoon is wonderful - or so we're told; it's not included in the text. Then, they arrive at Manderley and things start to unravel. Everyone expects that the nameless protagonist is about to step into the previous Mrs. de Winter's place, do things as she did, and prefer things as she preferred them. The narrator is so uncertain of herself - she is very young after all - that she goes along with the established routine. However, Maxim seems to be pulling away. Hurt and jealous of a dead woman, the narrator becomes even more timid and falls into more elaborate fantasies - which she is already prone to do.
Rebecca...
Enforcing the traditions of the previous Mrs. de Winter is Mrs. Danvers, who seems to hate the narrator. There are a few intense scenes between the two women, which culminates in a nasty prank by Mrs. Danvers using the narrator to emotionally hurt Maxim. Mrs. Danvers loved Rebecca de Winter and thoroughly blames Maxim for her death.
For good reason, but that's getting into spoiler territory.
The first half of "Rebecca" builds up the character, Rebecca, into this mythically perfect person who is wonderful and kind to everyone. Except, perhaps, she wasn't so nice to Ben, the neurodivergent (they didn't have this word in the 1930s when this book was published, but it's clear he is not neurotypical) "beach hermit" who wanders around the grounds of Manderley. He seems afraid of Rebecca and claims that she wants to lock him away.
This is the first clue that Rebecca is not the saint we and the narrator have been led to believe. The next is a reaction from estate manager and family friend, Frank Crawley after the narrator confesses that she's afraid that Maxim doesn't really love her (anymore). Frank seems to be warry of the memory of Rebecca - almost like he had a bad experience or two with the women. Plus there's this creep, Jack Favell, coming into the house when he's been told to stay away.
Spoilers
Maxim hated Rebecca, but couldn't divorce her for a variety of upper class 1930s English reasons. She slept around, did (unspecified) terrible things, and may have been bisexual (it is also not specified). Her death might have freed him from her physically, but not emotionally.
Maxim may be portrayed (and often interpreted) as a classic upholder of traditional upper class patriarchy, but he's also someone who has clearly been emotionally, if not verbally abused for years. I feel a lot of people overlook this fact because "patriarchy" and "he gets away with [spoilers]". I feel that his quick romance with the narrator is a bit of a read flag, but the narrator is so nonthreatening that Maxim might have felt safe for the first time in decades.
Patriarchy...
Rebecca is often interpreted as the antithesis to Maxim's traditional patriarchy. She's bold, outspoken, sexually liberated, possibly queer (we only have that one declaration from Mrs. Danvers that doesn't verify anything), and knows what she wants out of life. This isn't a bad or wrong interpretation, but I do think it minimizes the horrible things she did (and is implied to have done) to Maxim and some of his friends (like Frank, Beatrice, and Giles).
Daphne du Maurier once admitted that she is bisexual - long after she published "Rebecca" - and that admission seemed to have made Rebecca the character look more sympathetic to the casual reader.
However, I don't think Rebecca is a feminist character or a foil for the patriarch. She's an interesting character and seems to defy the patriarchy, but also feels comfortable moving within and weaponizing it against other characters - especially Maxim. There's a moment during Maxim's confession where divorce is brought up and Rebecca (according to Maxim) tells him that it would be far too scandalous for him to divorce her after four days of marriage; such a thing would ruin him (but weirdly not her).
Also her implied treatment of Ben (as suggested by Ben) should really put a stop to people's rosy analysis of Rebecca.
Queerness...
Is "Rebecca" a queer novel?
Yes in the sense that at least three characters might be queer. The first two characters are obviously Rebecca and Mrs. Danvers. Though never explicitly stated that the two are queer (Rebecca would be bi and Mrs. Danvers a likely lesbian), Mrs. Danvers at one point does declare that Rebecca never loved a man. This could be interpreted a few ways such as Mrs. Danvers being so in love with Rebecca that she is in denial about her many affairs with men (including her cousin Jack) or that Rebecca was such a narcissist that she only loved herself. Either way, Rebecca is likely bisexual like du Maurier and Mrs. Danvers only has eyes for her.
The third possible queer character is Frank Crawley. I haven't seen Frank come up as much in the queer discourse about the book - some people seem to think he should have paired up with the narrator. However, I'd like to make an argument that Frank is in love with Maxim.
1. Frank is a bachelor and implied to be a similar age to Maxim - being a bachelor isn't a sign of being queer in the early 1900s, but it is a hint.
2. Frank seems to already know the big bad thing Maxim did and is perfectly happy to help cover it up as best he can - I know his job is on the line, but his actions are a little more over the top than an employee-employer implies.
3. Frank is completely devoted to Maxim in a healthier way than Mrs. Danvers was to Rebecca. He maintains healthy boundaries with Maxim and the narrator. When he is with the narrator, I get nothing less than platonic vibes (such great evidence I know) from him.
4. Frank is completely repulsed by the memory of Rebecca. There's a conversation between the narrator and Frank where he all but confesses that Rebecca made a pass at him and Giles (who is Beatrice's husband and brother-in-law to Maxim). Giles either enjoyed it or was very confused by the encounter (it's not really made clear in the text), but Frank implies he nearly jumped out of his skin. Based on what we're told about Rebecca and her conquests, she wasn't used to being rejected by anyone. This was the moment I started questioning if Frank was gay.
And that is why I think there are actually three queer characters running around the pages of "Rebecca". Rebecca is the "bad" queer representation, while Frank is the "good" queer representation. Mrs. Danvers is the queer representation that should have been "good", but ended up getting beaten down by the powers that be and had a break from reality.
However in the movie, since Mrs. Danvers is implied to be a lesbian, she has to die in a house fire. Thanks Hayes Code. She is the only character "punished" for their actions during the course of the story.
That's also not the only change made between the 1940s movie and the book that's due to the Hayes Code interfering with the adaptation. There are a couple of other changes - one really big as to change the morality of the text - that happen. There's a great YouTube video about the adaptation if you're interested and are familiar with the book and/or movie.
Gothic Romance...
I love a good gothic aesthetic tale, but gothic romances are a toxic mix of red flags and tragedy. Though I did enjoy "Rebecca", I can't say that I was rooting for any of the characters other than Frank (he's a good guy). It was a bit more to my taste than "Bluebeard's Castle". I wouldn't call "Rebecca" a feminist book, but it is a critique on the patriarchy, class, gender, and social issues. "Rebecca" is a book full of queer subtext that can be overanalyzed to literary scholar's hearts content.
Do I recommend "Rebecca"? Yes, it's a good classic read.
Wow, I spent like two hours getting all my thoughts out about this book. I hope this doesn't come back to haunt me...
Until next week.
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